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We’ve been a busy Board already this year! Because we have so much to share, we are offering it in three parts, this is the third (you can find the first here and the second here). This one provides news about a recent transition on the Board.

Last in our news roundup is a change in leadership. Due to work stresses, Sara Edwards has resigned from the Board. Sara contributed a lot in the last 16 months as she served as Secretary-Elect and Secretary. The Board is very grateful for all that she did.

Per our By-Laws, the Board is required to appoint someone to fill any vacancies when it occurs mid-term. As a result, at our meeting last week, the Board appointed Cheryl Hazlitt to the Board. She will serve the remainder of Sara’s term, and is considering the possibility of being nominated for one of the vacant positions beyond that. More information on this around February or March when the Nominating Committee begins its work of determining a slate for our elections in May.

Cheryl has been a great asset on the Personnel Team and we’re sure she will be a big help on the Board as well. Please give both Sara and Cheryl your thanks the next time you see them.

We’ve been a busy Board already this year! Because we have so much to share, we are offering it in three parts, this is the second of these (you can find the first here). This one provides an update on our space task force.

As you have likely experienced and heard, our church has grown quite a bit in the last decade, and especially in the last couple of years – which is why we are looking at our space needs for the future. The Board believes our current campus cannot be adequately expanded to meet our (and Fort Collins’) anticipated growth. We discussed space at our informational forum a few weeks ago, where we had 55 people attending. We got lots of great comments in person and on sticky notes. We have conducted two additional meetings with 16 people participating.

The main question we’re hearing so far is about the process – how and when it’ll all happen. It’s a great question and we have broad answers to it right now. We are in step 1 of probably 50 steps. We wanted to bring the whole congregation into the conversation as early as possible. We wanted to hear your thoughts and concerns, as well as your hopes and dreams. Our next step is to hire a programming consultant to

Help us understand how much space we need and what kinds of space we need given our programming;

Give us a second opinion about our current campus and if there is a possibility we could adequately expand here; and

Help us figure out what to look for or build in a different place.

The Space Committee has already interviewed and checked references on several professional firms that do this work. The church will be hiring someone shortly. There will be opportunities for you to participate in this step – so we hope that you will keep an eye out for announcements.

All of the steps in this process will be thoughtful and deliberate, and will probably take three to five years, which will look generally like this:

Year 1 (Fall 2017 -Summer 2018)….This year we will figure out what we need and develop some more specific plans.

Year 2 (Fall 2018 – Summer 2019/20)…..Next year, we will figure out how much it will cost and how to pay for it. This could take 1-2 years.

Year 3/4 (Fall 2019/20 – Summer 2020/21) The third year, we will remodel, renovate or build and take care of the other logistics around moving. This too might take slightly longer, depending on all the decision points along the way.

Do we know exactly how many steps there are actually going to be? Not really, but we wanted to give you the general sketch. We also wanted you to know that the congregation will be involved all along the way. That’s why we brought you in early!

We on the Board are always happy to hear from you. We are all going to figure this out together.

Each of these need at least one additional person beyond Board members. We have begun recruiting for these positions, and wanted to make sure that anyone who may be interested had a chance to express that interest. If you want to learn more and see if your gifts may be a fit for these teams, send an email to theboard@foothillsuu.org before September 30th.

Those of us who hang around churches a lot talk about the idea of “church-time,” by which we usually mean SLOW time. It’s often talked about with a chuckle, and sometimes a sigh of frustration, especially for leaders inclined towards moving the church forward in a way that makes “perfect sense,” at least to them.

This was the story about Foothills’ when it came to governance change – at least whenever I’d heard it up until this past week. We’d been trying for over 15 years to make an effective change in governance structure that would bring our underlying system into alignment with our church size and today’s best practices. This sense that it had been going on for a long, long time inspired the Board in the first year of the interim after Rev. Marc Salkin retired (2014-15) to move quickly on a new direction. What that Board – and all of us – quickly realized, however, is that even though it felt slow to some, not everyone was caught up, and after the retirement of a long-tenured minister, it felt like too much change, too fast.

The Board learned from that experience, re-grouped, and began a slower and more cooperative and consulting process beginning in the church year 2015-16. As a result of many, many conversations with all sorts of people in all sorts of ways, this past Sunday we saw the flip side of “church-time,” what I call the “all-of-a-sudden-it’s-done” phenomenon: The congregation enthusiastically endorsed the Governance Task Force’s work and authorized the Board to move forward with its trial year.

It was a huge and wonderful accomplishment for this congregation, and it was a beautiful thing to witness – because it was both about a single moment, and about all the faithful, sometimes-frustrating, usually-thoughtful moments that the meeting constituted. Thousands of hours and years of committees and teams all came together into one meeting where the the foundation had been properly set, the congregation was ready, and the time was right.

Even though people talk about church-time as slow time, that’s not at all how I see it. I see church as the embodiment of the principle that’s true in every case where you’re trying to do something big, and important and long-lasting – which is that if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, you must go together. And going together takes patient, careful time…conversations and care, humility and a great sense of humor. But then suddenly, in one hot June afternoon, you look around and realize, all-of-a-sudden, it’s done. And then you just feel proud, and grateful, to be there at a time such as this.

Because of the complicated nature of this year’s agenda, the Board leadership met earlier this week with a professional Parliamentarian to prepare.

In that meeting, we realized that it would be ideal to establish a few standing rules at the beginning of our gathering to ensure our meeting runs smoothly, respectfully, and within a reasonable time frame. While these rules will need to be approved by the gathering on Sunday (2/3rd majority), we wanted to give you the heads up about what we’re thinking in advance. So, here are a few of the sorts of rules we’re considering:

An agreed-upon time limit for speakers;

An agreement that everyone who wants to speak gets to speak before anyone speaks a second time;

An agreement to abide by our covenant of right relations as a part of our business;

For any amendments (particularly to the by-law portion) that they be submitted in writing in advance to the Board so that the whole gathering does not need to wait while editing/drafting occurs.

While we believe that our governance proposal has been thoroughly vetted through our many meetings and conversations with the congregation over the course of the last 18 months, our process leaves open the possibility that there remains something needing further consideration. As a result, please do note this last potential rule if you are considering an amendment proposal, and please submit it in writing as soon as possible (and no later than 11:15 am on Sunday) to the Board of Trustees at theboard@foothillsuu.org.

Thank you all for your partnership and support as we continue to grow our congregation in service of our shared mission, unleashing courageous love across our whole community, and beyond.

This update is a part of a Governance Update being sent by email to all Foothills members.

Every year, the church prepares a budget in the spring for the church year starting on July 1, projecting monthly income and spending 15 months in advance. Our budgets are balanced, so we spend only what we earn.

Nearly all of our income is from the pledges of financial commitment made by members and friends of our community.

The budget for next fiscal year has been prepared by the Finance committee, affirmed by the board, and will be voted on for final approval by the members of the congregation at our annual meeting on June 4.

A hearing to introduce and discuss details of the budget will be held on May 7 at 10:40am. Highlights include an overall increase to the budget of nearly $43,000 made possible by a projected pledging increase of over 8%!

Most of the additional income will be invested in our human resources, including a new part-time coordinator position for membership, as well as salary adjustments to reflect current UUA compensation guidelines for our ministers and staff.

Please plan to attend the May 7 hearing to inform your vote as the budget presentation at the Annual Meeting will be abridged.

As the school year comes to a close, so does the church year. On Sunday, June 4 at 11:00 a.m. we will hold our official annual congregational meeting. Please save the date! All members will be asked to attend to vote on elected offices as well as bylaws changes and the annual budget.

Lay leaders – who are all volunteers/members of the congregation – and Foothills staff have been hard at work preparing for the annual meeting.

To help members prepare, a packet will be sent out around May 18th by email (paper copies available by request) that will contain the important information you need to know before voting.

At our Annual Meeting, in addition to the elections and votes mentioned above, we will be thanking our outgoing officers, hearing about the results of our stewardship campaign, and officially moving forward on our Governance trial year. Because this is a lot to pack into a single meeting, and because we have over 600 members, we’d love to be in conversation with you before the meeting to hear your feedback and to help you learn about these various facets of our congregational life. As a result, in other blog posts you’ll find mini-updates on each of these areas, as well as notices of meetings where you can discuss these topics more fully with their respective leaders.

We look forward to talking more about all of these things with you and moving our congregation forward as we continue to unleash courageous love! So, please,

mark your calendars and watch your email around the 18th. We look forward to seeing you soon!